Great-grandmother seeks new housing

Question: What ever happened to Jane Kamanu, who faced eviction from private low-income senior housing for allowing her 11-year-old great-granddaughter to live with her against the house rules?

Answer: Kamanu, now 74, still lives at Kulanakauhale Maluhia o Na Kupuna, a property for Hawaiian seniors in Waimanalo, where residents must be 62 or older.

In 2005, she avoided eviction by sending her great-granddaughter Kehealani, now 13, back to her mother. However, Kehealani returned, and this summer, Kamanu said she received an eviction notice for allowing Kehealani and a 30-year-old grandson, not Kehealani's father, to live with her.

Kamanu says she knew it was against the rules, but allowed them to stay because they were family and since she had raised Kehealani since birth.

Eventually Kamanu asked them to leave again, but she wants to move someplace where her family can live together.

Prudential Locations, the management company at Kamanu's housing complex, said it was only trying to enforce the rules. An official said if the transgression continued, the property owner could face penalties for noncompliance from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funded the project.

This year, the nonprofit advocacy group Na Tutu -- Grandparents Raising Grandchildren -- worked with legislators in the Kupuna Caucus, including state Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland. They were able to modify the policy at the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Chun Oakland said. The new policy creates a waiver system allowing children to continue living with grandparents in senior housing until the family can be placed in affordable family housing.

The change doesn't help Kamanu because she doesn't live in state housing.

This update was written by Robert Shikina.

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